


Playing Catch Up

by Cân Cennau (cancennau)



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Cantair Set, Drabble Series, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Graduation, Marriage, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 18:31:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7812580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cancennau/pseuds/C%C3%A2n%20Cennau
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>10 drabbles following the evolution of Patty and Holtzmann's relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Playing Catch Up

“You can’t bagsy the entire second floor.” Patty tells her, dumping her bag on the bed. “And this is _my_ room, just letting you know.”

“What-” Holtzmann whirls around, incensed. “ _I_ wanted this room! I wanted the window!””

“Too bad, my bag’s on the bed. We could share-”

“If we share, you’re going to have to sleep in a room with radioactive goop - I keep all my experiments close.”

“No, I’m going to sleep in a room with _you_. The radioactive goop can go in the spare room. Which is _spare_.”

Holtzmann throws her hands up in the air. “ _Fine._ ”

* * *

 

It’s late. A rather stubborn incorporeal spirit is insistent on haunting some old lady’s bathroom, meaning the Ghostbusters are covered in all manner of sewage for several hours before they catch it. Patty collapses on her bed after stripping off. Holtzmann takes the shower, turning on her speakers before she gets in.

“If you’re going to play Hozier,” Patty says, after a while. “At least play _Work Song_ \- it’s a better song.”

“You listen to Hozier?” Holtzmann turns off the shower, surprised.

“Sometimes. What did you think I listened to?”

“Beethoven, maybe-”

Patty hits the bathroom door with a pillow.

* * *

 

The firehouse is cool, but old, and it’s not long before something is damaged. Half the second floor has to be rebuilt after a pipe leak which Holtzmann swears was accidental.

“Hey, uh Holtzmann? Patty?” Erin pops her head into their room one evening, where they’re both curled up watching _War of the Worlds_ on Holtzmann’s laptop. “I’m redesigning the second floor - I think we can get the other bedroom to have a window, if you wanted separate rooms?”

Patty looks at Holtzmann on her shoulder. Holtzmann munches on a piece of popcorn and shrugs.

“Nah, I think we’re good.”

* * *

 

The mornings are long and lazy on their off days. Patty doesn’t get up until gone nine, Holtzmann doesn’t even bother to get dressed, and pads around shirtless in flannel pyjama bottoms.

“What are you going to do today?” Holtzmann asks one morning.

“Not much.” Patty replies sleepily. “I might finish my university application today.”

“University app?” Holtzmann grins. “You getting a doctorate like the rest of us?”

“Not yet. Finishing my History masters. Got halfway through it last time before I had to choose between study and rent.”

“Harsh.” A pause. “If you need help…”

“I know. Thanks, Holtzy.”

* * *

 

The university letter comes in a nondescript envelope, but Patty knows as soon as Kevin reads out the return address. She runs up the stairs to the bathroom where Holtz is showering.

“Open it!” Holtz says, climbing out of the shower sans towel. “I want to know what it says!”

“I don’t! What if I get don’t in?”

Holtzmann rolls her eyes, before kissing her. The kiss is wet and soft and tastes slightly of shower gel.

“You are _fantastic_.” Holtzmann tells a dazed Patty. “Now open the letter before I do.”

She gets in, and Patty can’t stop smiling.

* * *

 

Catching ghosts together and being covered in ectoplasm on a regular basis causes a certain closeness, meaning it’s a remarkably short honeymoon period before Patty and Holtzmann are comfortable showing their weird sides, like Patty’s ridiculous pyjamas and Holtzmann’s inability to move things unless they needed to be moved.

“Holtzy,” Patty says one evening, as they cuddled in bed. “I know that officially I’m a student and everything, but we really _don’t_ need to cram ourselves into a single bed. Pull the other bed over.”

Holtzmann fakes a snore. Patty sighs, but settles. They can move it in the morning.

* * *

 

Time moves on. The Ghostbusters work, and Patty goes to class afterwards. Holtzmann invents new, better equipment, and forces Patty to watch terrible movies as she studies.

“I’ll kiss you if you get this question right.” Holtzmann says, a history book in her arms. “And if you don’t...”

A sigh. “You’ll play another ten minutes of that godawful Mothman movie - really, where did you _find_ that? It’s terrible.”

“And I’ll play it if you don’t answer.” Holtz grinned. “Come on - get the next three right and we can move onto… better things.”

“...Fine. The Wounded Knee massacre occurred in 1980…”

* * *

 

Graduation day dawns bright, and Patty is stood in the university’s biggest hall in gown and mortarboard, feeling far more emotional that she ever had in her life.

“I feel like I might cry.” she whispers to Holtzmann. Holtzmann smiles a little.

“Erin already is.” she says. “‘Ectoplasm in my eye’, my _arse_.”

“Given our line of work…” They both laugh. Holtzmann slips her hand into Patty’s.

“You did good.” she murmurs. “Doctorate next?”

“Of course.” Patty replies. “Need to catch the rest of you up, baby.”

The band starts playing, and Patty kisses Holtzmann in front of the congregation.

* * *

 

“They made the old place look good.” Patty says afterwards. “You know they hold weddings here?”

Holtzmann nods sagely. “We should get married here.”

Patty raises her eyebrows. “Are you proposing to me?”

“Maybe.”

“That was completely unromantic.”

“Okay, how about this… You. Me. Two wedding dresses-”

“No suit?”

“Too modest. Dresses which show off both our tattoos - yes, yours too - all our friends, Ghostbusters included, in this hall getting married. Is that more romantic?”

“You might just get a yes with that.”

“And afterwards, lots of booze, good music and I can even make fireworks-”

“No fireworks.”

“But-”

“ _No_.”

* * *

The fireworks boom over the wedding party, the sparks shining like a thousand tiny stars. Patty could hear Amy and Erin drunkenly cheering after each one.

“I can’t believe you talked me into fireworks.” Patty pushes the veil away to whisper in Holtzmann’s ear.

“I said they’d be pretty.” Holtzmann turns and grins at her. "Not as pretty as you, though.”

Patty rolls her eyes, face burning. “That’s disgustingly cheesy.”

“ _Adorable_.”

“ _Disgusting_.”

“You love it.”

“I love _you,_ so I’ll put up with it.”

“Now who's being cheesy?”

Patty tightens her hold on Holtzmann’s waist and watches the fireworks, contented.


End file.
